Water Districts Consider Increasing Rates to Offset State Cuts : Utilities: The loss of revenues will have a ripple effect throughout the county. Some agencies say they may reduce jobs and programs.

Officials at water districts countywide are considering ways to make up for losses in state revenue, from laying off employees to imposing rate increases.

The United Water Conservation District, one of the hardest-hit by reductions in state funding, will consider a rate increase combined with cuts in staff and programs, General Manager Frederick Gientke said.

The measures are needed to make up $475,000 in funds cut by legislators in the state budget passed last week, Gientke said. That is a loss of 25% from the district’s general fund budget, he said. United regulates ground water used by the cities of Ventura, Santa Paula and Port Hueneme, and by growers on the Oxnard Plain.

A rate increase of $2 per acre-foot is needed to offset the loss, he said.

Officials also are looking at ways to trim operating costs, from delaying maintenance projects to eliminating overtime and reducing staff, he said.

An acre-foot of water is the average amount used annually by two families of four.

Casitas Municipal Water District, a major water supplier to the city of Ventura, is considering a rate increase, but will probably make up all of its $500,000 loss by cutting back on programs and staff, General Manager John Johnson said.

The board has talked about increasing rates, but is leaning toward reducing maintenance projects and eliminating some positions, Johnson said. The district would have to impose a rate increase of up to 15% to make up the revenue loss--an unlikely option, he said.

The county’s largest water purveyor, Calleguas Municipal Water District, already has decided to make up its $1.3-million loss in revenue by dipping into reserves and scaling back operations, General Manager Donald Kendall said. Calleguas supplies state water to parts of Oxnard, Simi Valley, Moorpark, Camarillo and Thousand Oaks.

Kendall said it is unfair to ask Calleguas customers to absorb the loss through a rate increase.

“It’s $1.3 million a year to see that justice is done to the taxpayer to correct the injustice done by our state lawmakers,” he said.

The district is considering filing a lawsuit challenging state lawmakers’ decision to divert property tax money normally channeled to water districts for other uses. That is a violation of the state constitution, Kendall said.

And in a development unrelated to the state budget, water rates went up an average of 12% to 13% for 23,600 customers in eastern Ventura County this week, after a July decision by the California Public Utilities Commission to raise wholesale rates.

The increase will allow California-American Water Co. and California Water Service Co. to pass on to their customers the increase in the cost of water the companies buy from the Metropolitan Water District.

For the average customer of California-American, monthly bills will rise to $42.98 from $37.69, district Manager Judy Almond said. The average customer uses 294 gallons of water every month.

California-American serves 17,000 customers in Thousand Oaks west of Moorpark Road and the Las Posas area near Moorpark.

California Water Service Co. area Manager Sam Palermo said the typical customer, who uses 481 gallons, will see an increase to $61.03 from $53.28. The company has 6,600 customers in eastern Thousand Oaks.

Water rates may be going up for 12,000 Simi Valley customers of the Southern California Water Co., a private water supplier. The company has asked for a 12% rate increase, needed to pay for increased operating expenses and capital improvements and is part of a three-year rate cycle, General Manager Tom Bonusky said.

If approved, the increase of an average of $3.70 a month will become effective in early 1993.